I wish you every success with your solar power stations in space, though I suspect it won’t be you building them, it will be a very large corporation, which, if we learn from the lessons of history, may not have human beneficence in mind.
But much more to the point, Kim, where we get our energy from represents about 5 percent of the human dilemma we face, so even if space based solar power stations did prove to be a miracle silver bullet for energy supply, I suspect they won’t guarantee us peace and harmony on Earth.
Fixation on energy supply is a peculiarly masculine absorption, I find. A fascinating phenomenon. During four decades of energy debate I have come across, or been lobbied by, innumerable blokes who have become deeply devoted to one technology or another – whether that be hot rocks, tidal power, fuel cells, the hydrogen economy, nuclear power, solar arrays covering the Sahara, even nuclear power… you name it.
By way of example I give you Barry Brook, environmentalist extraordinaire and nuclear power devotee. Check out his website: http://bravenewclimate.com/
These earnest men of science and technology, for the most part, do not represent big corporate interests, they are basically well-intentioned men who have become, in many cases, so totally besotted by their preferred technology it’s as if they have fallen madly in love. Like anyone in a state of deep infatuation, they will brook no argument, it is simply a state of mind they have fallen into. I wish them all well.
That is not to say good things can come of technological innovation, let’s hope some of it works and causes more good than harm. But I am fascinated that never, not once, have I come across anybody but blokes who are insufferably immersed in this technological mind-set. The phenomenon is curiously gender specific.
Maybe it is blokes who will save the world with whizz bang new technology, but I fear that our gender is inflicted by a rather big cultural blind spot. Books and websites galore now tell us that the human condition is multidimensional, energy supply being a significant but smallish factor in the scheme of things. For now, I will listen respectfully to your optimistic ‘space solution’, albeit with a strong sense of déjà vu.
